USA-Vietnam under $400 Roundtrip

There were several deeply discounted fares to Asia from multiple US cities available today. Flights leaving from Washington DC, NYC, Chicago and LA were up for grabs. Destination cities included Hanoi ($390s), Ho Chi Minh City ($390s), Bali ($460s), Jakarta ($470s) and Seoul ($500s). Travel dates started on February 26th through May. The flights were operated by American Airlines and Japan Airlines OR Korean Air.

Marathons in Vietnam

Marathon options in Vietnam are limited to:

• Da Nang International Marathon – August 28th, 2016 (two laps of half marathon course)
• Vietnam Mountain Marathon – September 24th, 2016 (mountain)

Neither of these would have worked for the available travel dates. However, there is a 50k ultra and a number of 5ks/10ks/half marathons between now and May.

What Made this Fare Great

Assuming Washington DC-Ho Chi Minh City routing:

• This fare was half the price of the normal fare
• This fare would have earned 19,180 frequent flier miles
• I value American Airline miles conservatively (1.5cpm) making the yield on this mileage run worth a bare minimum of $287.70
• Before the new AA frequent flier program changes take effect, booking five of these trips would earn you over a year of AA Executive Platinum status
• AA Executive Platinum status gives you unlimited complimentary upgrades and 4 systemwide upgrades (buy an economy itinerary and force an upgrade to business)
• With $2000 and some free time, you could buy AA status and get 5 trips to Asia

This is an all absolute steal. I have at least one friend who bought tickets to Jakarta (more miles) and Vietnam to take advantage of the deal. I hope more got in on it.

How I Found This Fare

If you follow me on twitter, you noticed I tweeted out an airfare deal from LAX-SGN (Ho Chi Minh City) just before 8am this morning. Almost 3 hours before the deal went viral online!

I found this fare because my friend told me about it. He found the ticket on google flights last night and waited to make sure he got ticketed. He shot me a text this morning to celebrate.

I immediately took a look at how the fare was priced and noticed that the transpacific flight was dirt cheap (LAX to Tokyo). I knew once I got across the Pacific it would be cheap to continue to other cities and started digging.

Final Thoughts

This was an amazing deal. Half priced fares come up about once per month and 2-3 times per week I get tipped to fares that are discounted 20-30%. I’ll be unveiling a client portal in the next month or so to streamline airfare notifications by region. Until then, you can join my 4,000 followers on Twitter, subscribe for email updates or let me know about a trip you have brewing in the back of your mind. I can manually add you to my database and keep an eye out for the fare you need.